What's in your pony?

[paddler3d]

40 and it is on a sling. Never having used one before, I guess I just have to get used to it.:cool2:

I dove an AL40 as my pony for a lot dives, slung on my left. Make sure the top clip is pretty short. Play with the length of the bottom clip. When I first started diving with it, I had is real short, the bottom clip that is. Right now my bottom clip has around 2" of play before it touches the tank. You use the bottom clip to play with the trim of the tank.

Make sure you've got an arm or something on it when you a doing boat entries with a giant stride. A 6ft drop can push it up!

You'll find that the pony sucks on land, or in boat, but in the water you'll hardly notice it after a few dives.

 

[NAM001]

whats the proble if you are diving ean32 at depth and ooa occures and you go to ean36. it does not make squat if you spent a cpuple of minutes and head up. first of all youare not going to get the ean36 in your system for several minutes. you have to enrich the lungs from 32-36 that takes several breaths to do that then to absorb it into your system takes even more time.
second loook at ean36 at depth based on 1.6 atm and you are most likely ok or just over the LIMIT at ehich time you are on your way up entering the at depth for ean36 at 1.4 atm. there is a lot of safety built in to the 1.4 limit. you are prpobably .3-.4 under any real threatening depth.

here is an example i used a mod calculator for this

ean32 at 1.4 is 111 ft
ean36 at 1.6 113 ft

ean 36 at 1.4 is 95 ft

just how long does it take to get to 95 ft the 1.4 limit from 113 ft at the 1.6 safe limit?

if i had an ooa i would be heading from 111 to 50 ft asap and figure out at 50 ft what happened. the pony lasts longer at 50 thatn 113 so why stay down there?


btw ean40 is mod of 85 ft i would use that too in a pony?

 

[hobodiver]

What exactly do people think they are gaining by having nitrox in their pony?

 

[RAD Diver]

Well I generally use the same gas in my pony as in my back gas while I'm in singles, doubles it is a deco bottle & will run 50 & 80%.
The main reason is if I do run long & get over NDL & happen to be on a 1 gas computer (or my 3 gas computer decides not to work, which has happened very recently)I will still be on schedule to get out of the water safe, or as safe as can be according to my back up tables.
Having air I would just stay until I ran out at 15 ft & hope for the best, not the best, but it beats drowning.

 

[Atomic_Diver]

I will be diving with a 40cf pony this season, what should be in the pony, TIA

Well what ever is in my bottle is for deco, now whats on my bottle is a sticker that says OXYGEN MOD 20... In other news what ever you have as back gas should be in your pony for emergancy purposes, that way if you bail out with your pony you have the same gas as what was in your main cylinder...

 

[DCBC]

I will be diving with a 40cf pony this season, for the first time. I have spoken to several people with different ideas of what should be in the pony, some say air, some say nitrox. What say you?

Most dives are in the 80-120 foot range along the mid atlantic. In my mind, if the pony is used something drastic happed to my buddy or myself and the dive terminated.

Hey Tia. I haven't used a pony for a long time, but will use additional stage bottles (usually AL 80s).

If your diving in the 80-120' depth range, air is fine. A Pony is used as a redundant gas source to get you to the surface, should you or your buddy have a problem and need to make an emergency ascent. It's contents are not designed to be used in your gas management plan.

 

[Dr Wu]

Well what ever is in my bottle is for deco, now whats on my bottle is a sticker that says OXYGEN MOD 20... In other news what ever you have as back gas should be in your pony for emergancy purposes, that way if you bail out with your pony you have the same gas as what was in your main cylinder...

Unless of course your reason for needing the bailout was you exceeded the MOD of your backgas.

Then you are boned.

 

[Atomic_Diver]

Unless of course your reason for needing the bailout was you exceeded the MOD of your backgas. Then you are boned.

that is why I dive doubles with a manifold, and I do the best I can to leave the pure O2 deco bottle at 20'....

 

[Dr Wu]

that is why I dive doubles with a manifold, and I do the best I can to leave the pure O2 deco bottle at 20'....

I was responding to this statement: In other news what ever you have as back gas should be in your pony for emergancy purposes....

Pony bottles are nearly useless with singles. With a rich gas mix they are even more useless. With doubles they are beyond useless.

Also, deco bottles are not pony bottles so I am unsure why they keep showing up in these conversations. I guess to the un-trained they LOOK similar.

 

[Herk_Man]

All valid points as is having a dive buddy and his reg etc....

All I can say is thank god we don't have to worry about it cause we got SpareAir!